“Even using an optimal depletion rate and starting with a very small number of Elites, the solution appears to be on a sustainable path for quite a long time, then Elites grow and consume too much, resulting in a famine among Commoners that eventually causes the collapse of society,” it says. According to one model run during the research, there is a total collapse of society just 125 years after the elites reach their maximum size.
So the end will come, according to the study, not from running out of resources but from greed, pure and simple. Hear that, 1 Percent?
Actually, they probably didn’t hear that. The report, which was penned in 2012, but recently accepted into the peer-reviewed scientific journal Ecological Economics, points out that the elites are typically blissfully unaware of society’s imminent demise. It says that “historical collapses were allowed to occur by elites who appear to be oblivious to the catastrophic trajectory (most clearly apparent in the Roman and Mayan cases).”
As in every good sci-fi flick, all hope is not lost. The study authors say that “collapse can be avoided and population can reach equilibrium if the per capita rate of depletion of nature is reduced to a sustainable level and if resources are distributed in a reasonably equitable fashion.”
Ah, so that’s all it will take. A sudden change of heart among the elites to distribute their wealth amongst the rest of us, and people to stop using natural resources like free lives in a video game. Better start hoarding bottled water and batteries now.
Well, the good news is that almost all of the disease, warfare, zombie and terminator style paranoid fantasies of the end are never gonna happen.
The bad news: Yes, society is likely to collapse — but only your great-grandchildren will likely see it.
And the worse news: It’s not even going to make a good movie. The 1% will simply take it all until there is nothing left.
Something our politicians may want to take note of now — at least those who are not already bought and paid for…
The end is nigh — no, really…
March 19, 2014 Comments Off on The end is nigh — no, really…C-Net
Well, the good news is that almost all of the disease, warfare, zombie and terminator style paranoid fantasies of the end are never gonna happen.
The bad news: Yes, society is likely to collapse — but only your great-grandchildren will likely see it.
And the worse news: It’s not even going to make a good movie. The 1% will simply take it all until there is nothing left.
Something our politicians may want to take note of now — at least those who are not already bought and paid for…